Emma: A Fleece Doll to Sew

I'm very excited today because the Emma the Doll pattern is officially released! Hooray! I've made more than two dozen patterns since turning in my book manuscript last year and I have to say, this one is my favorite.

I knew I wanted to design a doll and started to think carefully about what kind of doll I wanted her to be. I love decorative dolls with fine clothing, hair just so, and shoes that lace up, but I know as a mom what happens to dolls over time. Shoes get lost, clothes get lost, cloth bodies get stained with marker and jelly and mud.

This led me to begin thinking about a fleece doll that would be sturdy, yet pretty, and totally washable. And that's how Emma came to be.

As you know, I love fleece. It's easy to find at any fabric store. It's cheap as far as fabric goes. And it comes in lots of colors. You get to choose five bits of fleece when you make Emma (you'll use less than 1/4 yard of each one) and picking the colors and patterns is one of the best parts.

I've gone through and selected some favorites to get your creative juices flowing. All of the links are to Fabric.com. Here are some pretty choices for Emma's dress and accessories:

Of course, you can also use up scraps of fleece you may already have from other projects, or make a zombie Emma with green skin!

I'm excited about this pattern for one other reason as well. This is the first pattern I've made that contains supplemental video content. There's a special video showing you how to stitch her little nose neatly, and another detailing how to make her legs and feet. Adding video content to patterns is really exciting to me and has gotten me thinking about teaching a softie-making class here on the blog with lots of exclusive posts and short instructional videos. Something to think about for sure.

love your doll pattern, really well thought out and very pretty, one of your best yet. I bought a copy of your latest book. Really good and I am learning a lot from it. Craftsy seems very popular for video courses.

Hi Jane,
Thank you so much, and Im really glad youre enjoying my new book! I love Craftsy and highly recommend it for video classes. Its a terrific platform! As things stand now, though, Craftsy has determined that its users are not interested in learning to sew stuffed animals and dolls. I think that will change over time as more and more people see how Craftsy works and sign on. Im hopeful!

Interesting. I think Craftsy does need to expand its range if is to grow, there are a lot of us that do not do just one type of sewing and like variety, even if we do make quilts sometimes. Sure you would have enough interest on your site if you did one anyway.

I would support your bid for a Craftsy class… There would be nothing better than to actually follow along with you through various lessons. I have bought a couple of your patterns. Nothing would be better than to share a cup of tea with you on my iPad in my sewing studio while we make one of your stuffies together.
Hope it happens!

Have you ever used skillshare? I took a class on it for learning how to design in illustrator/photoshop and really enjoyed the class. It looks like there isn’t much on there as far as sewing goes but I don’t see why it couldn’t. The format would work great for what you want to do.